ORIGIN PACIFIC MEDIA RELEASE
27 January 2004

Origin Responds To Qantas Move

Origin Pacific's Managing Director, Robert Inglis, said he was disappointed that Qantas had decided to pull out of the aircraft lease and code share arrangement with Origin Pacific. Origin has always maintained it's plan to remain an independent airline however, has always been willing to work with other airlines for mutual benefit and for the fare paying public that benefits from competition.

"Origin Pacific entered into the arrangement on the basis it hoped this would be a long-term relationship following the failure of the Qantas NZ/Tasman Pacific operation some three years ago".

Mr Inglis said that following the Qantas advice the Nelson based regional airline would now look at rescheduling its fleet to reflect the changed environment where Qantas plans to fly jet capacity over routes Origin is currently flying on it's behalf. An announcement will be made within the next two weeks on how Origin's fleet capacity will be deployed on the new network the carrier will operate from April.

Most regional destinations served by Origin are likely to see little change to the current flight schedule as the Qantas codeshare contributed only marginally to it's revenues with the majority of customers booking directly with Origin. Two of the fifteen aircraft operated by Origin have been utilised in the main for Qantas wet leased services and these aircraft will be redeployed within the Origin network.

ENDS

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